26 Jun 2017

My main problem with this book is that Priestland does not really consider ‘structural’ violence. He dismisses it as ‘injustice’ that does not count as violence because it is not ‘physical’ (page 10-11). On the contrary, economic and social forces can be just as effective as physical forces in perpetrating violence. This is for at least two reasons. Firstly, economic and social forces can starve people into submission or death just as effectively as physical violence. Secondly, they can be - and often are - backed, beneath a thin veneer of civilisation, by physical violence from the same powers as carry out the structural violence.

There are countless examples of structural violence:

benefit sanctions and unemployment that starve people into submission;

the soft cops of social services that remove people’s children (and will call in the police if the parents resist)

schools that punish pupils in all sorts of ways short of coproral punishment.

And so on.

Priestland is also mistaken about the role of the media in manufacturing consent. He thinks ‘the media have tried to cultivate sympathy for the Biafrans, the Bengalis, Uganda Asians, gipsies, Ulster Catholics and inner-city coloured people’ (page 12). But contrast this with the history of racism towards foreigners in the British media. In the 1930s there was the hatred towards migrants shown by the Daily Mail when it campaigned against allowing Jewish refugees from Nazi Germany into Britain. Most of the media had racist stereotypes of black people in the 1960s and 70s as muggers, druggies and sexual predators. The media today, especially the Daily Mail, are equally vitriolic about Muslims, asylum seekers and EU migrants. The targets may vary, but the racism of the media remains the same. Against that background it is hard to believe that there was a golden age of tolerance to foreigners in 1974 when Priestland wrote ‘The Future of Violence’.

23 Jun 2017

Age 14? Welcome to the world of work!

The general rule is that you can get a part-time job from age 14 - but it can only be in what is considered ‘light work’. This means you cannot do any job that could affect your health and safety or get in the way of your education. Examples of work which you can do are:

Delivering newspapers and leaflets

Shop work, including shelf stacking

Office work

Hairdressing

Working in a café or restaurant, but not in the kitchen

Work in hotels and other places offering accommodation

It’s worth checking with your Local Authority before taking on unusual work to be sure it doesn’t contravene local regulations and bylaws

How long can you work?

You can work for a maximum of two hours on a school day and only between the hours of 7am and 8am and 5pm and 7pm.

You can work on Sundays between 7am and 7pm but, again, only up to two hours.

You can work up to five hours on a Saturday between 7am and 7pm.

During school holidays you can work five hours a day from Monday to Saturday but, again, only up to two hours on Sundays.

You must have a break from work of at least 2 weeks a year.

You must have a rest break of 1 hour for every 4 hours worked.

How much pay can you get?

If you are under the compulsory school age of 16 you are not entitled to the National Minimum Wage and you do not have to pay National Insurance.

Other rights and responsibilities

You can go into a bar and order soft drinks.

If convicted of a serious criminal offence (in a Youth Court), you can be held in secure accommodation for up to 24 months or get a fine up to £1,000.

Wearing a seatbelt is considered your own personal responsibility, so buckle up.

Your parents can be granted a justices’ licence which will let you take part in public performances abroad. This can include singing, playing, performing, being exhibited for profit, taking part in a sport or working as a model. (Children and Young Persons Act 1933, section 25.)

Useless factoid

Under a nearly 80-year-old law in New York state, children as young as 14 were allowed to marry if they obtained permission from both their parents and the court. The law was abolished yesterday so now you can only get married in New York state if you are 17 or over and young people aged 17 to 18 will need parental and court approval.

About Me

On Facebook and @robbiespenceuk and roadlesstraveller - blog started 2010 as somewhere to put facts, comments and thoughts (mostly other people’s) about history, politics, philosophy, economics and religion, before I forget them and before I bore my family with them. A commonplace book: a scrapbook of jottings as used for centuries as a memory aid. Themes include language and truth, especially dissident truth, which includes a lot of Noam Chomsky. The name ‘roadlesstraveller’ comes from the book by M Scott Peck, The Road Less Travelled, which had a huge influence on the resurgence of New Age spirituality in the 1980s.